Hearts Without Boundaries fundraiser will raise money to help sick Cambodian kids

LONG BEACH - Nels Matson knows what it's like to have a congenital heart defect. So it should come as little surprise that the work of a Long Beach nonprofit that helps children with congenital cardiac defects would resonate so close to, well, his heart.

Matson, 30, now a healthy teacher and wrestling coach, says he wants congenital heart defects to become a "household" issue - both recognizable, and someday preventable through research and treatment.

On Friday, Matson will be the special guest of Long Beach charity Hearts Without Boundaries, which is staging its main fundraising dinner. Proceeds will support its second annual medical mission to Cambodia to provide open-heart surgeries for destitute children who would otherwise go untreated.

As a toddler, Matson was diagnosed with a heart defect known as partial anomalous pulmonary venous return, a rare defect in which one or more of the pulmonary veins carries blood the wrong way. In Matson's case, three of his four pulmonary veins were pumping blood the wrong way. He also had a hole in his heart known as an atrial septal defect.

The defect causes excess blood flow and forces the heart to overwork to pump blood. Matson said when he received surgery at the age of 2, his heart was already three times normal size from the extra strain.

Matson realizes that he was lucky to have first-rate cardiac care, and by the age of 5, he was healthy enough for all activity.

He went on to be a collegiate wrestler in the Big 12 Conference at Iowa State.

"It definitely lengthened my life," Matson said of the surgery, and why advocating for cardiac care is so important to him.

"It makes me think that if I was born in an area like Cambodia, would I be standing here right now?" Matson said.

According to the Children's Heart Foundation, congenital heart defects are the No. 1 birth defect nationally and worldwide, affecting nearly one percent of all babies. They are the leading cause of all infant deaths in the United States.

In 2009, Matson started competing in endurance events to raise money for those affected by congenital heart defects. In 2010, working to support the Children's Heart Foundation, Matson cycled across the U.S. in support of children and families affected by congenital heart defects. Along the route, he met with children with heart defects, his "heart heroes," and had them sign his bike and cycle with him.

His effort was featured on the "Today Show" and was so successful that he repeated it in 2011.

Earlier this year, Matson met Peter Chhun, founder of Hearts Without Boundaries, at an event in Florida sponsored by Mended Little Hearts, a nonprofit that supports Heart Without Boundaries.

Last year, Hearts Without Boundaries sponsored surgeries to children in their home country, rather than bringing them to the United States as it has done over the past five years.

Chhun said last year's five-day mission treated more than three times as many children as the nonprofit had helped in the previous four years. And the cost was a modest $3,000 per child.

Chhun said recent research shows more than 100,000 children in Cambodia suffer from heart defects, with very few ever receiving treatment.